You Put the Pineapple in the Coconut Water…

You know how the song goes: You put the pineapple in the coconut water. You drink them both up.

No, that’s not how it goes? Well, it should go that way because darnamit if pineapple juice doesn’t make coconut water just a little easier to swallow. In my experience, coconut water is a bit of an acquired taste. A little salty, a touch coconut-y and a touch acidic, I’ve heard some compare the taste—rather viscerally, so prepare yourself—to upchuck. While that “taste” is certainly beyond gross, I’ve always thought coconut water wasn’t too terrible to drink as long as you were A) really thirsty after a hard workout or B) weren’t paying that much attention to the flavor. So, yeah, not a ringing endorsement taste-wise by me, but it’s worth chugging some down for the health benefits of coconut water.

Health Benefits of Coconut Water

It’s high in potassium (more than a banana!). It’s also a good source of other electrolytes, making it great for hydration.

Coconut water is natural. Unlike Gatorade, which you know, isn’t.

It’s high in cytokinins. Cytokinins have a positive influence on human cells and tissues and make help prevent cancer.

The Vita Coco Coconut Water with Pineapple had just a hint of pineapple and extra sweetness that covered up some of the slightly off-putting flavor of the usual plain coconut water. And even though this fruitier kind has more calories than the plain variety, I thought it was totally worth it for the taste. One container of the pineapple coconut water still has just 60 calories, zero fat and 16 grams of sugar. In addition, a serving contains 100 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin C and 8 percent of magnesium.

And if pineapple isn’t your fruit-thang, note that Vita Coco just came out with a new flavor, Vita Coco Tropical Fruit. A blend of coconut water, pink guava, pineapple, orange and dragon fruit, it’s pretty much a tropical coconut-water party just begging you to join it. (I wonder how it would taste with rum…) While I don’t drink coconut water of any kind (or rum, for that matter) every day—only after really long workouts or after I’ve been in the heat sweating it out for hours—I certainly think it’s worth trying if you’re curious about the health benefits of coconut water. Or if you, like others, have found coconut water to taste a little too, ahem, natural.And the best part? It’s so fun to sing the song when you drink it! —Jenn

I rather like coconut water, and I drank it in quarts while I was in labor and then all through the first 3 months of breastfeeding. It feels so good… definitely worth overcoming the initial weirdness.

I can’t stand the flavored versions, actually. Just the plain coconut water tastes best to me.

The only problem with coconut water is that you can’t guarantee its quality from batch to batch, so you can’t guarantee its proportion of sugars. This can be problematic for those of us who would like to rely on it for a postworkout beverage; unfortunately it often contains far too much fructose to be of use.